Initially, I was very nervous about spinning the bison. I spun a little when I took Judith MacKenzie’s comprehensive spinning class last April, but when it comes to spinning expensive fibers, I get a little… apprehensive. At $21/oz, the Bison falls into my definition of the “expensive fiber” category.

I spun it semi-woolen (long draw with the front hand doing some guiding to keep the yarn fairly even). I was instructed by Sandi (my personal Yoda) to add more twist to the singles (to essentially overspin them), which I did. I also plied it rather aggressively.

You can find the video of the fulling process HERE. In the video, it’s Yak, but I swear, I fulled the bison the EXACT same way, sans the overuse of the SOAK.

The bison is very soft, but has a smell. A gamey smell. It left my hands smelling pretty gross, but once my hands were washed, the smell was gone. I used the aquae scent of the SOAK, and that has mostly resolved the gamey smell of the bison yarn.

The bison hadfair amount of guard hairs, and a little VM. I’ve spun much grosser stuff, but really, this wasn’t too bad as far as VM is concerned.

If you aren’t comfortable spinning short fibers (or aren’t comfortable with woolen spinning), buy the pre-spun Bison/Merino blend. I’ve been working on my woolen spinning, but deep in my heart, I know that I am a Worsted Spinner. I did a lot of deep breathing to do this, and I practiced on the yak first.

I ended up with 360 yds/2 oz- a respectable laceweight. This may become another Shetland triangle, since it needed a little yardage and knit up in four days. Or a Dragon Scale Scarf. You'll see part two of the review once I've knitted up the bison.

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